GOLD HAIR. 79

Chirps in my ear:” then, ‘“ Bring a spade,
Dig deeper!” —he gave the word.

And lo, when they came to the coffin-lid,
Or rotten planks which composed it once,
Why, there lay the girl’s skull wedged amid
A mint of money, it served for the nonce
To hold in its hair-heaps hid!

Hid there? Why? Could the girl be wont
(She the stainless soul) to treasure up
Money, earth’s trash and heaven’s affront ?
Had a spider found out the communion-cup,
Was a toad in the christening-font ?

Truth is truth : too true it was.

Gold! She hoarded and hugged it first,
Longed for it, leaned o’er it, loved it — alas —
Till the humour grew to a head and burst,

And she cried, at the final pass, —

«Talk not of God, my heart is stone!

Nor lover nor friend — be gold for both!
Gold I lack; and, my all, my own,

Tt shall hide in my hair. I scarce die loth
If they let my. hair alone!”

Louis-d’or, some six times five,
And duly double, every piece.
Now, do you see? With the priest to shrive,